Holiday Traditions

The 12 Days of Blogmas challenge is almost through. Today’s topic is 11 Holiday Traditions. Writing about Christmas for the past ten days has visions of sugarplums dancing through my brain but I’ll do my best to come up with a list that doesn’t repeat too much from my previous posts. Here goes!1 – Take a road trip – every year my husband takes his annual vacation for Christmas. After 37 years at the railway, he now has six weeks so we always try to include a road trip in late November to early December to get away before the festivities really begin.This year, as we often do, we came to Las Vegas to visit friends and see some local sights. Our grandson loves coming here whenever he gets the chance to visit with the “kids” and visiting place like Death Valley, the Conservatory at Bellagio and Springs Preserve.

Polar bear at the Bellagio Conservatory

2 & 3 –Start playing Christmas music on December 1st – this is a tradition from my mother. As much as she loved the holidays, she didn’t play Christmas tunes until December 1st – also the day that we start decorating the house.4 – Get out my favorite Christmas baking books – I’ve collected quite a few holiday recipe books over the years and love to spread them out, carefully choosing what will go into gift tins and baskets, as well as what we will serve at Christmas dinner.5 – Order tea and Christmas cake – our eldest daughter discovered Murchie’s Fine Tea and Coffee a number of years ago while on a visit to Victoria, BC. Since then she puts an order in every year for Christmas (their Christmas cake is amazing!)6 – Get out the Christmas decorations – every year we promise ourselves to be more organized and avoid making the trek out to the storage barn through the snow to get the lights and inflatable out. Maybe next year 😀

Our purple Christmas tree (we have regular green ones too)

7 – Visit Santa Claus – our girls are grown but now we have our grandsons to take on visits to Santa. I like the one at Bass Pro Shoppe since they things for the kids to do and you get a free photo.8 – Decide when to take the turkey out of the freezer – isn’t this a holiday tradition for most families? One daughter says Butterball says so-and-so, another says she read such-and-such. The family pooch says, “put it in the sink nice and early, I’ll bet I can jump up on the counter before anyone notices.” Is there ever the perfect answer?9 – Read holiday favorites – I love reading Twas the Night Before Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and A Christmas Carol. We’ve recently added the Little House Christmas Treasury as well. It contains all of the Christmas themed sections from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s popular books.10 – Find an antique – We love to add to our antique Christmas decorations each year, spending time together as we search for something special that catches our eyes.11 – Go see the Holiday Train – no holiday season is complete without driving to see the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train wend its way across the prairie and stop in a small town to see the show on the stage car.